This morning http://buyarug.co.uk, a Magento site that we operate, was showing a white screen of death. Checking the apache error log revealed the following error:
PHP Fatal error: Call to a member function getDir() on a non-object in /DOCUMENT_ROOT/app/Mage.php on line 328
After some investigation the problem proved to be intermittent and caused a white screen when requesting a page, yet hitting refresh the page would load, then it would break again and so on.
Sometimes I wonder if in the future people won't refer to eras in terms of the materials we use – like the iron age, or the bronze age – and will instead refer to iPhone generations.
The incredible success of the iPhone makes it an influential device in the digital industry; it defines the standard for mobile development in terms of apps and web. But what does the iPhone change, and what can we expect for mobile development?
Reissuing the brand name for their tabletop computing experience, Microsoft yesterday announced the familiar Surface for Windows. In two varieties: an ARM based Windows 8 RT (read lite) version, and a beefed-up x86 based Windows 8 Pro (read full) version; the two tablets can go one of two ways.
The announcement of Mountain Lion, Apple's latest Mac OSX update, is another sign that Apple isn't resting on its laurels and marks an ominous turning point for their competitors. While 10.7, or Lion, was intended to create a more enclosed and unified ecosystem – the distance between iOS5 products, like the iPad and iPhone, and Mac OSX was still notable.
Just a quick blog on a new social network that's doing some interesting (although not necessarily new) things.
It's a content aggregation website like delicious.com nee del.icio.us. Interestingly, Pinterest's most attractive feature isn't complex tech wizardry, it's just utilitiarian UI design. What Pinterest has identified is the ability of contemporary internet users to rapidly consume diverse information.
Kew Gardens is releasing a major update to the Official iPhone app. The app will be available to download in late September and has a wide range of exciting new features.
The latest version of the application integrates the most exciting smartphone technologies to make Kew Gardens an even richer experience.
The app is built by Make it Digital, the digital consultants. Make it Clear, sister design agency, designed the app.
'Dig Deeper' is a new section of the app hosting augmented reality, a QR Reader and access to Flickr galleries of the most beautiful Kew Gardens photography.
Dreams of cheddar
Waking from a deep sleep one misty morning, David the aspiring dairy farmer was inspired. He felt there was nothing he couldn't do. This, he thought, was the perfect opportunity to finally take the cow by the udders – he was going to milk the world dry!
Despite sounding like the codename of something transmitted by killer cucumbers, IPV6 is actually something of a hero. The fact is, the internet is running out of space. It might seem ridiculous, but it’s true.
The internet gives every connected device its own unique IP address. So when you connect a tablet, phone, PC and a games console to a single router – as many people will – you need four IP addresses.
Open source software has grown massively over the last decade. It is fast replacing proprietary commercial stalwarts, powering the sites for Nike, Harvey Nichols, and Barack Obama. However, many people still have their reservations about the potential 'unknowns'. Is open source the way forward?
HTML5: it's a big topic for developers at the moment, given added weight by its starring role in the iPad and iPhone Adobe Flash debate. But what does it mean for you?
